In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team received suggested that the content being provided often added little to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office) team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get "No help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting point to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible :-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team received suggested that the content being provided often added little to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

[thuse]

It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007. I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol in the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course." It is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate it with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse


--
Thuse in LA


"Klaus Linke" wrote:

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office) team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get "No help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting point to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible :-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team received suggested that the content being provided often added little to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You have replied to an existing suggestion. If you want to post a new
suggestion, as it appears you do, you need to start a new thread and
designate it as a "Suggestion for Microsoft." Or you can vote for or against
the existing suggestion.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"thuse" .(donotspam) wrote in message
...
It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007. I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol in
the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course." It
is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate it
with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a
lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm
voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse


--
Thuse in LA


"Klaus Linke" wrote:

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used
the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office)
team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get "No
help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or
recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting point
to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible
:-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine
the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted
because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team
received suggested that the content being provided often added little
to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used
the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance
team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to
create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing
help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's
This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's
This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more
information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page
surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized
the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This
was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing
F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is
no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the
newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using
the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions
that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we
dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already
know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

[thuse]

My goodness, after I hit POSTon the previous reply, the window disappeared,
and the post came back with some words interchanged. I guess in the future
I'll use a word processor to generate the post and cut and paste it here.
I'll have some proof then if it garbles something again.

The prior post is somewhat garbled, but I hope the intent is clear. If it
isn't if someone asks me to repost it I'll do so.
--
Thuse in LA


"thuse" wrote:

It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007. I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol in the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course." It is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate it with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse


--
Thuse in LA


"Klaus Linke" wrote:

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office) team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get "No help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting point to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible :-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team received suggested that the content being provided often added little to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

[thuse]

Never mind. The present situation provides me job security in teaching users
of your product. If you accept suggestions from people who can't figure out
the rules you could let in some valuable feedback.
--
Thuse in LA


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

You have replied to an existing suggestion. If you want to post a new
suggestion, as it appears you do, you need to start a new thread and
designate it as a "Suggestion for Microsoft." Or you can vote for or against
the existing suggestion.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"thuse" .(donotspam) wrote in message
...
It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007. I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol in
the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course." It
is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate it
with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a
lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm
voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse


--
Thuse in LA


"Klaus Linke" wrote:

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used
the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office)
team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get "No
help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or
recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting point
to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible
:-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to determine
the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted
because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team
received suggested that the content being provided often added little
to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually used
the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance
team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to
create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for providing
help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's
This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the "What's
This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more
information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page
surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users utilized
the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This
was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps pressing
F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there is
no reason for it not to be available in the other Office applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access the
newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using
the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to suggestions
that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw, we
dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already
know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/

[Peter T. Daniels]

Your first posting was perfectly clear -- but the people you're
addressing here don't work for Microsoft.

On Aug 22, 4:14 pm, thuse .(donotspam) wrote:
My goodness, after I hit POSTon the previous reply, the window disappeared,
and the post came back with some words interchanged. I guess in the future
I'll use a word processor to generate the post and cut and paste it here.
I'll have some proof then if it garbles something again.

The prior post is somewhat garbled, but I hope the intent is clear. If it
isn't if someone asks me to repost it I'll do so.
--
Thuse in LA

"thuse" wrote:
It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007. I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol in the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course." It is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate it with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As Peter points out, none of us here work for Microsoft. If you post a
"Suggestion for Microsoft," you are supposedly addressing MS, but they are
committed to taking notice of the post only if it receives some
predetermined number of positive votes. Those who vote (or comment) are NOT
Softies.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"thuse" .(donotspam) wrote in message
...
Never mind. The present situation provides me job security in teaching
users
of your product. If you accept suggestions from people who can't figure
out
the rules you could let in some valuable feedback.
--
Thuse in LA


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

You have replied to an existing suggestion. If you want to post a new
suggestion, as it appears you do, you need to start a new thread and
designate it as a "Suggestion for Microsoft." Or you can vote for or
against
the existing suggestion.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"thuse" .(donotspam) wrote in message
...
It is my lot to get novices comfortable with the Ribbon in Word 2007.
I
think I keep some of them from coming here and asking confusing
questions.
The first thing I teach them is the location of the little "?" symbol
in
the
upper rh corner. When one asks "where did they hide that doggone spell
checker now" the answer is always "hit the question mark. There is a
good
search function under it that will tell you under Review, of course."
It
is
suprising how few find that question mark by themselves, or associate
it
with
Help. You wouldn't expect this behavior of pros, but I don't think MS
is
willing to concede the novice market.

Suggestion: Put the words HELP in all caps next to the question
mark.''

"What's this" was nice, but I'd settle just for an explicit HELP. The
what's nice philosopy doesn't fit the Ribbon anyway, where most of the
keywords are hidden under the first-line tabs anyway.

I was directed here by a MVP when a prior post was criticized for being
posted in the wrong place. I found this discussion confusing because a
lot
of things aren't being discussed. It is repectfully request what I'm
voting
for if I hit one of those icons. If this post too is in the wrong
place I
request that a MVP put it in the proper place. 'Thuse


--
Thuse in LA


"Klaus Linke" wrote:

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually
used
the
"What's This" help at all.

That's sad, because F1 ("What's this" in Word) should be as good at
supplying context-sensitive help as possible, and if the Word (Office)
team
gives up on this, others will follow. And the more often people get
"No
help
available on this topic", the less likely they will be to try or
recommend F1.

I'd have wished for hyperlinks or a "More..." button as a starting
point
to
delve deeper into the regular help files.
But instead, most links from the regular help files also vanished, and
a
missing index and no hierarchy to browse make the help less accessible
:-(

Regards,
Klaus


"Nick Simons [MSFT]" wrote:

In Word 2003 the Office User Assistance team did research to
determine
the best approach to "What's This" help. The research was conducted
because "What's This" help is very costly and feedback that the team
received suggested that the content being provided often added
little
to the text provided in the UI.

It turned out that only a small percentage of customers actually
used
the "What's This" help at all. In light of this, the User Assistance
team decided to use the resources allocated to "What's This" help to
create content that would be used by a broader audience.

In the next version of Office we are looking at options for
providing
help on UI and in dialogs but there is no plan to bring back "What's
This" help.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

Beth Melton wrote:


When you click the "Question mark" (?) in a Word dialog box the
"What's
This?" mouse pointer used for clicking a specific option for more
information is no longer available in Word 2003. Instead a Help page
surfaces which provides dialog content.

Although the content is also helpful information, most users
utilized
the "What's This?" pointer for a quick definition of an option. This
was a one-click solution and it is no longer available.

A combination of using the "What's This?" pointer and perhaps
pressing
F1 for Help content would be ideal.

The "What's This?" pointer is still present in Access 2003 so there
is
no reason for it not to be available in the other Office
applications.
*******
This is a suggestion posted on Microsoft's web interface to access
the
newsgroups. If you want to vote on this suggestion and are not using
the web interface click the link below and vote!
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...&lang=en&cr=US
(Filter posts on "Suggestions to Microsoft" to quickly find this
post)

As I understand it, Microsoft is committed to responding to
suggestions
that have a high vote count. Lets hear what they have to say! (btw,
we
dont want to hear it is "by design" €“ that is something we already
know.)

~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/